County plan will be an obstacle to workforce effort

The lead news story of April 17 about a “$140,000 grant to improve the workforce that The Bridge will use to prep, connect students” is curious. It neglects to consider the obstacle it faces in Doña Ana County to answer the question, connect students to what? Presumably it is to “provide (employment) opportunities or everyone” and connect them with meaningful, rewarding work and social well-being.

“The absence of a comprehensive plan lies at the heart of the disconnect of resources and programs,” Bridge Executive Director Tracy Bryan said in the article. Bryan should read, carefully, the Comprehensive Plan 2040 of Doña Ana County to see if is the existence, not absence, of that plan that creates the disconnect among resources, plans and programs that endeavor to “connect students … to the host of economic development plans for the region.” Until she and her “Workforce Talent Collaborative” partners understand that what they are trying to do conflicts with “Plan 2040,” they are facing frustration.

County Comprehensive Plan 2040 features six “Livability Principles,” the fifth of which is to “enhance economic opportunity.” You have to get to page 85 to find out what the “goals and actions” are to see what that means. There are 11 of them; the last of which deals with matching job skills to business needs. The presence of this Comprehensive Plan represents the core of the problem of why graduation rates and unemployment rise in tandem — instead of inversely — here in Doña Ana County.

Throughout the county’s Comprehensive Plan 2040 there is minimal concern shown for the roles that commerce and/or industry play in the lives of the residents of our county. There is an irrational assumption that if the county government focuses on its livability principles in its development planning processes, there will be bountiful economic opportunities for everyone. This, of course, has it backward as far as grooming the workforce to meet the needs of the business community. It is the need of the employers that drives the attraction of employees.

Having a surplus of workers does not lead to greater employment, it usually leads to lower pay scales. Plan 2040 does not in any meaningful way point the route to creating a need for a workforce that “the collaborative will focus on preparing students for the high-demand higher paying industries the economic development community is trying to attract.”

Until such time as the Bridge and its “collaborative” recognize that the county Comprehensive Development Plan 2040, its ancillary plans, and its implementing regulations are major obstacles in “connecting” students to productive, remunerative and satisfying work opportunities, they will rapidly conclude that in the words of “Pogo”: We have met the enemy and they are us!

This is not to disparage the work of many county employees and multitudes of volunteers and interested people, and millions of taxpayer dollars (both federal and local) that went in to creation of the County Comprehensive Plan. It is only to point out that when a grant arrives to study a problem of economic importance, those attacking that issue need to understand that the sociopolitical interests that have thus far influenced the economic future of our county have set a course inimical to economic growth and well-being of our residents.

Read this “host of (county) plans” that will overwhelm efforts to solve employment, education and social problems we face in one of the poorer counties in one of the poorer states as our national growth accelerates. We have real economic opportunities developing in part of our county. It will in reasonable likelihood be the engine that will “connect students” and others to employment “opportunities for all.” The work of The Bridge in addressing the problem of workforce preparation will need to overcome its obstacles.

C.D. Huestis was a member of the county Planning and Zoning Commission when the Comprehensive Plan 2040 was approved by that commission for consideration and adoption by the Board of County Commissioners.